Why, Again, With the Tree?
by Sebe
Summary: Stiles just wants one freakin' day away from the pack that he had, somehow, become an important part of. His harassment is witnessed, and enjoyed, by a random woman. Outside POV. Pack-ness with hints of Sterek.


Author's Notes: Stiles is just trying to relax in the park, maybe read a book or surf the internet aimlessly, just spend a day with no one trying to kill him and no werewolves, lizards, or hunters crawling all over him and his life. But apparently, they're all reduced to toddlers without him there and Derek is not amused. The woman he's sitting next to in the park is though. She listens in as Stiles tries to talk down a frustrated Derek and misinterprets everything. Though, what she says does make Stiles look at things in a new way.

Summary: Stiles just wants one freakin' day away from the pack that he had, somehow, become an important part of. His harassment is witnessed, and enjoyed, by a random woman. Outside POV. Pack-ness with hints of Sterek.

**Why, Again, With the Tree?**

The woman watched her children from the bench as they climbed all over the parks' playset, and each other, smiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a boy walking along the path, a backpack slung over his shoulder. He looked, well, harassed would be a good word. Like many others that came to the park just to unwind, get away.

She noticed him turn in a slightly clumsy circle, looking around for a place to sit. He stumbled over his own feet and tried to right himself again before anyone noticed. He glanced around after recovering to find her smiling at him in amusement. He blushed and ducked his head a bit.

Knowing there were no other free benches, she scooted over and patted the seat beside her, ushering the boy over. He seemed unsure for a moment, but quickly acquiesced.

As boys his age were want to do, he all but collapsed next to her.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Gets kind of packed here around this time with school letting out and all." She shrugged. "Just needed a bit of a getaway that's not running away?"

He considered her for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, I guess. Just…needed to breathe a bit maybe?"

She nodded, understanding. She didn't pry into other peoples' business, but she liked to guess, build stories around those she saw. And this was an interesting one.

He couldn't be out of high school yet. Even without the backpack, he was just too fresh faced. With the amount of stress he seemed to carry in his shoulders and the way he'd weaved his way to this part of the park where the children usually played, she was going to say he was likely a young father; they made them younger and younger nowadays, not that she was any old crone herself, so she was far from judging. He was likely feeling inundated by his new accountability for another life and was looking for a few moments of peace. But he was caring, responsible. Liking his new life, but overwhelmed by it, adjusting. He wasn't trying to run away, a good guy. That's why he'd have come here.

He breathed deep and sighed, moving to pull a book or a laptop out before jolting back up, looking embarrassed.

"Uh, sorry. I totally forgot to introduce myself." He reached out and she shook his hand, glad her assessment had been right. "I'm-"

His phone rang and he looked immediately annoyed. He scowled and looked at the screen, groaning.

"Oh, come on. Are you kidding me?"

She smiled in a knowing way. He was so young, the kid must be young too. No doubt causing trouble for whoever was babysitting and they were calling in reinforcements; much to her bench-mate's dismay. He flipped open the phone.

"What?" She couldn't hear what the voice on the other end was saying, but it did not sound pleased.

"Yeah, I- Listen, Derek-" Oh, so an adopted kid then. Or surrogate. It hadn't been an accident. She was impressed that one so young would knowingly take on the responsibility of a parent. She knew she liked this kid and her intuition was rarely wrong.

"Why is he in a tree?...Can you get him out of the tree?" Stiles closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Try." He sighed out. And then, with a voice speaking of the untold hardship of standing alone on an island surrounded by a sea of idiots, ground out, "Try harder. What? _What_ is she covered in?...Why?!"

The young mother smothered a laugh. She knew how it was raising kids. She looked back at her two little ones, rough housing on the monkey bars. It could make you want to tear your hair out. And even when a good intentioned partner did try to help out, if they weren't really experienced in the day to day of it, well, it didn't generally turn out spectacularly.

She remembered her own well meaning husband telling her to take a day off. She'd come home to an obvious tactical nuclear strike of glitter, glue, and flour and an unconscious family; her two girls draped over their crayola colored father.

"What, no! I've been gone for like, an hour. You can handle it. Just keep them all apart and- are you throwing things at him to get him down? Stop it! Look, have Boyd help…why's he on the roof?! That's not helping! That's the opposite of helping! What about Jackson? He's…what do you mean he's stuck? Stuck in what?!...Again? _Why_?"

He winced and held the phone slightly away from his ear and the woman could hear the flustered, frustrated voice yelling on the other end.

"Yeah, I- Fine, _Fine_! Just- I'm on my way. Just don't make it any worse!" He snapped the phone closed, looking decidedly unhappy. She tried to help.

"They always mean well when they say they'll watch the kids." She scoffed a bit. "How many do you have?"

He looked at her again, seeming caught off guard for a second, but then it passed and he gave a wry smile.

"Uh, five?" He said like it was a question, scratching the back of his head. "I guess seven if you count the other two."

"Wooo. Good luck." He huffed a laugh, pulling his phone out as it buzzed twice in succession.

"Yeah, thanks." The boy frowned as he checked the text, muttering. "Geez, I said I'm on my way already." His phone buzzed again and then again until he finally growled and shut it off, standing abruptly.

"I better go before…well, the things that I can think that could happen are almost innumerable in the extent and variety of their terribleness."

"A destroyed house?"

"Inter species war." He shrugged nonchalantly. She laughed at the joke, but there was a look on him like he was finding amusement only in how she found the wrong thing funny.

The woman smiled at him as he packed up his things and threw his bag over his shoulder. She hoped she wasn't being too rude to this boy she'd just met and didn't even know the name of, but she really wanted to know,

"How old are your little holy terrors, anyway?"

He didn't skip a beat.

"Youngest is 19. Have a nice day." Stiles waved at the shocked-silent woman over his shoulder as he walked back to his jeep. He just hoped Derek hadn't managed to actually kill any of the betas yet and that someone had a damn good reason why Scott was in a tree.


End file.
